Current Edition

The Magazine of Albemarle County History, Vol. 75, 2017

Magazine of Albemarle County History

An annual journal of local history published since 1940

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Featured below are excerpts from just a few of the articles featured in the current addition of the Magazine of Albemarle County History.

Featured Articles -

Matthew Fontaine Maury and the Physical Survey of Virginia and Albemarle County

By: Richard L. Nicholas

The aftermath of the Civil War left Virginia physically and economically devastated and its population impoverished and desperate for relief. Along with the rest of the state, the people of Albemarle County struggled for survival and looked forlornly to the future. The postwar task of recovery and restoration seemed almost insurmountable. But inspired by the words and examples of leaders such as General Robert E. Lee and others, Virginians went to work to help the exhausted state recover from the ravages of four years of war. One project, sponsored by the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and led by professor and scientist Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873), not only provided an opportunity for VMI to significantly participate in rebuilding efforts, but also created a historically valuable record of Virginia—including information about Albemarle County and Charlottesville—in the late 1860s and early 1870s (fig. 1).

Virginia Military Institute Surveys an Opportunity

The Virginia Military Institute (VMI), located in Lexington, Virginia, had been burned in 1864 in a wartime raid (fig. 2). As its superintendent Francis H. Smith later said, the gutted and poverty-stricken school was left with “nothing but its reputation” at the end of the war. However, in spite of the shortage of physical structures and money, the school somehow managed to reopen in late 1865 with a handful of students and faculty housed in temporary quarters. VMI slowly regained its feet.

The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 - 1919 in Albemarle County and Charlottesville

By: Addeane S. Caelleigh

Bruce Hackett, a carpenter who lived near Scottsville, was the first person in Albemarle County to die of Spanish influenza, on September 30, 1918 (fig. 1). By the end of the next week, 27 more had died. Among the first were Rebecca Edwards, a 16-year-old schoolgirl; Lula May Furbush, a 5-month-old baby; Margaret Gaskins, a 4-year-old girl; Ernest Pace, a 29-year-old mechanic; Lucy Ellen Jarrett, a 45-year-old housewife; William Powell, a 20-year-old student at the University of Virginia; Chastine Sparks, a 14-year-old factory worker at Charlottesville’s Woolen Mills; and Deamy Johnson and Roy Barton Parr, both young farmers in their twenties (fig. 2).

A virulent new type of influenza had arrived in Albemarle County and the city of Charlottesville (the combined area referred to hereafter as Albemarle-Charlottesville). Spanish influenza, so called although it did not originate in Spain, was among the worst epidemics in recorded history, spreading around the globe and killing at least 50 million people in a year. An estimated 25 million Americans—approximately 25 percent of the U.S. population (at a time when the U.S. population was only one-third of today’s total)—contracted it. Overall, almost 700,000 Americans died—a figure exceeding the combined total of military dead in all U.S. wars (except the Civil War). In Virginia, by the time the two biggest waves of influenza had swept through, more than 326,000 Virginians had caught the disease and almost 16,000 had died.5 In Albemarle–Charlottesville, an estimated 5,000 people caught the flu and at least 227 of them (4.3 percent) died, out of a total population of just 36,000.6 (See appendix 1 for a list of all Albemarle-Charlottesville Spanish flu victims for whom there were death certificates in 1918–1919.)

Revisiting the Dolly Madison Inn

By: Kieran K. Matthews and Sarah R. Gibbons

From 1922 to 1964, the Dolly Madison Inn welcomed guests to Charlottesville from around the world (fig. 1). Located at 1204 West Main Street, the Inn stood in an ideal location between downtown, Union Station, and the University of Virginia, near the intersection of West Main Street (University Avenue) and Jefferson Park Avenue. The Inn’s namesake, former First Lady of the United States Dolly Madison (1768-1849), earned a reputation as a celebrated hostess during her tenure in the White House. Her name became synonymous with American hospitality. Perhaps inspired by both the popularity of this most recognizable historical figure and the early twentieth-century concept of Colonial Revivalism, owner Richard Thomas “R. T.” Matteson (1855/7-1933) of Petersburg, Virginia, likely sought to capitalize on these nostalgic associations when he opened the Inn. Gleaning information from original guest books, material artifacts, contemporary news articles, and city maps, this article traces the lifespan of the Dolly Madison Inn and offers an in-depth look at the Inn’s earliest years and its owners, an examination of the wider cultural and decorative trends that influenced the Inn’s aesthetic, and a survey of the Inn’s long-lived—but now largely forgotten—presence in the local community.

“A Picture Quaint and Lovely”:
Colonial Revivalism and Dolly Madison in the 1920s

Early American history pervades Charlottesville and its environs. Even today, pieces of the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century built environment remain, from the original structures at Court Square to Monticello and Highland, the homes of local sons and founding American fathers Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, respectively.

Twentieth-Century Charlottesville through Rip Payne's Lens

By: Madeline Hennicke

Rip Payne (1917-1990) began his career with an eight-dollar camera and a knack for photography, but his single-minded focus and ability to be first on the scene made him one of the go-to photographers in the Charlottesville area for nearly fifty years (fig. 1). As his daughter Jacqueline “Jackie” Maupin, grandniece and mentee Sherrie Breeden, grandnephew-in-law David Schwartz, cousin-in-law Janice “Bunny” Creasy, friend and journalist Rey Barry, and friend and fellow photographer Jim Carpenter recall, Payne leveraged his natural talent and dedication into an award-winning and varied career. Although Payne did not set out to be a documentary photographer, his collected works—a mix of commercial, journalistic, and personal photography—chronicle the evolution of a region through a turbulent and dynamic century, reflecting not only cultural and societal changes, but also developments in the medium of photography. This retrospective, marking the centenary of his birth, traces the timeline of Payne’s life alongside the major political, social, and technological shifts of the twentieth century, as well as historic events in the local community.

Growing Up in the Early Twentieth Century

Russell Clinton “Rip” Payne was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, on November 15, 1917, to parents Russell Hampton Payne (1895-1974) and Dorothy Mae Payne (nee Creasy) (1895-1988). Rip had one sister, Doris (1918-2005) (fig. 2). According to the 1920 U.S. Census, the family lived on Free Union Road with Rip’s grandparents, Thomas Price Payne (1876-?) and Ada Payne (1872-?). By 1930, Rip and Doris had moved with their grandparents to a home on Ivy Road. While Dorothy did not appear in the 1930 U.S. Census, the record did list Russell Sr. living in Camden, New Jersey, with his second wife, Molly (Mollie) Mary Chamberlain (1903-1963). The family eventually returned to Albemarle County, and from his father’s second marriage Rip gained four half-sisters and eight half-brothers.